Anyone who wants to submit a paper to a computer science conference usually faces two options: Use a TeX template or use a Word template. I haven’t written TeX in thirty years as a first author (I do edit and contribute as a coauthor because it can’t be avoided) and I use Linux and hence LibreOffice which usually can’t handle the Word templates well.
Continue reading “Rage Against Required Templates for Paper Submissions”What to Make of the High-Tech Layoffs
To my disconcerted students:
Sadly, the massive layoffs in Silicon Valley and around the world that we are currently observing are a low-frequency yet business-as-usual event. Let me tease apart the different components and draw some conclusions for your career.
First of all, you may have observed how they are all happening at once. This is no coincidence: Layoffs are bad press and so companies will try to make it go over as smoothly as possible. Once one company got going, others will hurry up and take the opportunity to jump in.
Continue reading “What to Make of the High-Tech Layoffs”Demonstration that Chat GPT is Human
Or stupid. Probably both. Enough anthropomorphizing already.

Activities vs. Phases
Clarity in writing is essential for successful scientific communication. A pet peeve of mine is the confusion between activity and phase, when discussing about any process, but specifically research processes based on design science.
An activity is something that you do. You applied a method. You searched the web. You went for a walk. A phase is a period of time; often you perform activities within such a period of time. If there is one phase, there probably are other phases, those that came before and/or those that came after. Having phases implies a sequencing of these phases and activities bound to them.
Continue reading “Activities vs. Phases”To Review or Not to Review
I previously reported about a bogus review for a journal submission of ours. The submission had been rejected partly or fully based on a review that obviously had nothing to do with our paper but must have been reused from before. I had complained to the editor, but I had not got any answers for my questions.
The journal, owned by one of the prestigious non-profits in my domain, seems to be on autopilot. Today I received an invitation to review a submission for this journal.
Continue reading “To Review or Not to Review”Creating a ROS 2 Distribution [Upcoming Talk]
I’ll be giving a (somewhat unusual) talk about a new project I’m interested in. The talk will be held at UCSC (California Bay Area) second week of January and UQAM (Montreal) third week of January. HMU for details if you are are interested.
Continue reading “Creating a ROS 2 Distribution [Upcoming Talk]”Inner-Source Software Development [Upcoming Talk]
I’ll be giving a talk on our inner source research at Concordia and McGill (both located in Montreal) third week of January. HMU for details if you are interested.
Continue reading “Inner-Source Software Development [Upcoming Talk]”Fixing Scientific Language Using Chat AIs
I wanted to know whether a chat AI like ChatGPT would help my students and me improve scientific writing (not every Ph.D. student is born with superior language skills). So I asked.

An Illustration of How Chat AIs Might Disrupt Teaching
With the recent general availability of chat AIs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, teachers have to ask themselves how to deal with student homework potentially created using these tools. In the following ten minute video I provide a short illustration from my own teaching how students might use such chat AIs in creating homework, and I discuss how a teacher might react to it.
Continue reading “An Illustration of How Chat AIs Might Disrupt Teaching”A Common Single-Person Research Design That Does Not Work (Well)
I’ve had some success in grant proposals with research designs for human-centered software engineering that follow the following (common) pattern. It is a three-step of
- Structured literature review (to create an initial theory),
- Action research (to build out the quickly evolving theory), and
- Case study research (to conclude by evaluating the theory)